Powell, Jonathan & Olya

Olya was born and raised in Odesa, Ukraine (at that time part of the Soviet Union), in a home that did not know God. She came to faith in Odesa through the work of MTW missionaries in 1997, and served actively in her church there until she moved to Lviv in 2008 to join a new church-planting team.

Jon grew up in Virginia. As his faith grew during college, he began to sense a call toward gospel ministry, leading him to join Team Lviv in 2009.

After two years of working together as teammates, Jon and Olya married in 2011. Having a passion to reach college students with the gospel, they served in the RUF-G ministry in Lviv for over a decade before returning to the US in 2020 to allow Jon to complete seminary.

As they return to Lviv, they do so resting in the Lord’s unchanging purposes for His church in Christ. The need to come alongside the Ukrainian people, proclaim the hope of the gospel, and to strengthen and plant churches has never been greater.